Despite this being Scotland, the weather had been sunny and warm on day one of the hike, and it had stayed warm and dry overnight. As a consequence, I was the happiest I have ever been in a tent. I had woken up dry, I had actually slept, my back didn’t hurt, and the first day of the hike had been a complete success. It is only natural then that things would become more and more difficult from here on.

I didn’t quite know why I wanted to spend any of my time hiking, I just know that when A Walk in the Woods ended, I knew that I was going walking. The West Highland Way can be walked in seven days, and an old flatmate Dean and I decided that this was something we could easily accomplish. We were fools.